Chicken and Butter bean stew

New semester, new timetable, new culinary adventures.


My local butcher does these amazing deals where you can buy 3 packs of meat for £5, today there were some very large, very juicy looking chicken thighs on offer which I just had to have! At the moment a lot of my food is spanish inspired as smokey paprika is my new favorite flavour, I have it on everything, even popcorn! I think the warmth of the flavour is just what's needed to combat the recent freezing temperatures.


And what better to go with stew than freshly baked, homemade rolls? So of course i just had to make a chicken stew and rolls for dinner.


Stew
3 large chicken thighs
1 onion, chopped roughly
2 large cloves garlic, roughly chopped
some mushrooms, cut into thick slices
half a red pepper, chopped
1 tin tomatoes
1 tin butter beans, drained
1 tin kidney beans, drained
2 generous tsp smokey paprika
1 chicken stock cube
2 tins of boiling water


Start off by frying the thighs in a tbsp oil to seal them and reduce your overall cooking times. Give them a few minutes each side and then transfer to a casserole or slow cooker. Add the beans, tomatoes, stock and paprika to the pot. In the oil left over from the chicken gently fry the onions and garlic for a couple of minutes until the onions just start to colour and then add to the pot. Finally add the mushrooms and peppers and cook on for about an hour in the over at 160C or for 4 hours in a slow cooker on high.


Rolls
Make a batch of the simple white bread recipe and leave to rise for an hour or until doubled in size. After this carefully divide the dough into equal portions and lay on a baking tray. At this point you can top the rolls with herbs, cheese, black pepper or anything else you like. Leave the rolls on the tray for about half an hour until doubled in size. Bake for 8-12 minutes in a hot (200C) oven. For crusty rolls get some steam in the oven either using a water spray or fill a tray with water and place it at the bottom of the oven.